


oh won't you give yourself a try

by technicolouredmonochrome



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M, Slow Burn, also all of svt are cats, because i love that slow burn, because why not!!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 14:16:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19395865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/technicolouredmonochrome/pseuds/technicolouredmonochrome
Summary: Jihoon lives a couple of units down from Soonyoung and has known him for most of his adult life. Somehow, they end up adopting a bunch of kittens, and fall in love along the way.(Basically, an excuse for me to write some domestic soonhoon with the rest of seventeen as cats.)





	oh won't you give yourself a try

It’s all, undoubtedly, Soonyoung’s fault, as most of Jihoon’s worst decisions generally are.

It started early Saturday morning with a knock and his doorbell echoing in the otherwise quiet apartment, and when Jihoon wrenched the door open with bleary eyes, there Soonyoung stood with a bundle of fur tucked under his chin.

“Mrs Lee down the hall fell really ill last night and had to be admitted to the hospital! She left Seungcheol all alone so I went to pick him up, but I have a dance competition for the whole of next week and I’m flying tonight and there’s no one else available to babysit him so you are my last and only hope Jihoonie! Please!”

And so, through a combination of pleading (Soonyoung) and sad kitten-eyes (Seungcheol), Jihoon finds himself, Saturday afternoon, sitting at his kitchen counter watching a tiny, brown-spotted kitten bat at his cutlery.

“Who the hell names their kitten Seungcheol,” he asks the cat, who trots over to him at the sound of his name and starts pawing at Jihoon’s fingers for pets, which he reluctantly obliges.

Seungcheol is adorable, even _your-heart-has-been-frozen-over-since-you-were-a-child_ Jihoon is able to admit that, and Jihoon spends the first half an hour with Seungcheol in his care very stoically and very calmly having a meltdown.

“I am not equipped to take care of another living creature,” he tells the kitten very seriously, as he attempts to chew off his finger. “Ridiculously inept. I can’t even take care of myself most days.”

Seungcheol just purrs as Jihoon scratches behind his ears, and he has a very sudden, very clear premonition of him killing this tiny furred creature who is now curled up under his chin.

“Oh god,” he tells the tiny kitten, who just yawns and stretches, before affectionately head-butting his arm. “Why did I even say yes to looking after you?”

His phone buzzes a moment later, and Seungcheol takes great delight in batting at the glowing screen. It’s Soonyoung, who sent him a list of pet websites, all with the titles _How to care for your kitten!_ and _10 must-knows for first time cat owners!_

In a strange way, it feels like Soonyoung had known he was freaking out, because he sends a follow up message of a thumbs up emoji along with a _you got this!_ that makes Jihoon smile despite everything.

Jihoon scoops Seungcheol up with one hand and brings him over to the couch, settling him on his lap as he scrolls through the various websites, reading through everything over and over. There are things about pet food, about windows and doors, about blankets, claw trimming, and scratching posts, about vets and exercise. Surprisingly, the multitude of information doesn’t overwhelm him, and instead helps him to narrow down the basic necessities to care for the kitten currently napping in his lap.

It takes a couple of hours, but Jihoon sets up and kitten proofs his home. _It’s just temporary,_ he tells himself. _Just until Mrs. Lee down the hall gets better._

Seungcheol is maybe the most puppy-like kitten he’s ever met, because he follows Jihoon everywhere around the house, weaving between his feet and almost causing Jihoon to trip in his efforts to not crush Seungcheol by accident. When Jihoon places the kitten in the living room amongst the thousands of stuffed toys he’d gotten from Mrs. Lee’s apartment in order to get some work done in his studio alone, Seungcheol yowls so loudly outside his locked door that Jihoon gives up and lets him into the dark room with him.

“You better not chew up any of my wires,” he tells the kitten sternly, but apparently all Seungcheol wants to do is serve as a wrist rest for Jihoon as he works, his tiny chest rising and falling under the weight of Jihoon’s arm.

Dinner rolls around before Jihoon even realises, but Seungcheol must also be hungry because he’s moved from his warm spot beneath Jihoon’s wrist and has started batting at the bobble-head dolls that line the side of his desk. One of the dolls tips off the side of the table and crashes to the ground, startling Jihoon out of his composing stupor.

When he glares at the kitten, Seungcheol just flattens himself to the desk and meows plaintively.

“Fine,” he sighs. “Time for dinner I guess.”

Seungcheol refuses to eat alone, and complains loudly when Jihoon just sets his food bowl down and tries to head back to his room to get that last bit of the song done. After a 5-minute staring contest between himself and a fucking kitten, he finally pulls out the leftovers in his fridge and settles himself in for dinner.

“I didn’t lose the staring contest,” he makes sure to tell Seungcheol between mouthfuls of food. “I just, _gave in_. Cause you’re so tiny. And I didn’t want you to starve.”

Seungcheol just continues inhaling his food. 

When night comes Seungcheol happily follows him to bed, stretching out next to his head, body pressed up against the side of his face like a warm, living pillow. Sleepily, Jihoon remembers Soonyoung saying something along the lines of “You need more regularity in your life,” and thinks that he could probably get used to this.

When he wakes up, it’s to Seungcheol curled up in the warm space between the back of his neck and the bed. He stretches and Seungcheol clambers out from his space, yawning and stretching adorably.

“Morning,” he tells the kitten, who just rumbles contentedly and brushes against his arm as he bounds off the bed.

His morning routine is a noisier affair with a kitten thrown into the mix. Seungcheol insists on following him into the bathroom as he gets ready, content to curl up on his fluffy bathroom floor mat and watch as Jihoon bustles around getting ready for the day. They eat breakfast together, and Jihoon finds that Seungcheol doesn’t try to follow him to his home studio after, instead taking to curiously sniffing around the house.

He gets a decent amount of work done, what with the full night of sleep and the great start to the day, and loses himself in the studio until there is a loud yowling outside his door that can be heard through his headphones. When he glances at the clock, he notices that it’s time for lunch, and clicks the door open for Seungcheol to streak into his room, a small mass of black and brown fur.

“I thought you only needed to eat twice a day,” he asks the kitten, who is squeezing himself behind Jihoon and curling up in the warm hollow between Jihoon’s back and the seat, but he realises that his stomach is rumbling from hunger so he picks Seungcheol up and heads to the kitchen for lunch.

Seungcheol steals a third of his food, happy when Jihoon picks up bits of rice and meat and hand-feeds it to him, and follows him back to his studio once Jihoon’s done with lunch.

It’s all terribly domestic and terribly familiar, when Seungcheol knocks over another one of Jihoon’s bobble-head dolls and looks apologetic for all of ten-seconds before Jihoon brings him out for dinner. And at night, Jihoon doesn’t even flinch and worry about crushing him when Seungcheol squeezes into that same space behind his neck and the pillow, purring softly as Jihoon falls asleep. Before he knows it, a week passes in a flash and Jihoon wakes one morning to his doorbell being rung repeatedly.

“I’m coming,” he calls, and Seungcheol is already at the door pacing restlessly. Worried that he might run out, Jihoon picks him up and tucks him into the pocket at the front of his hoodie (a newfound hiding spot that Seungcheol discovered yesterday) before opening the door.

“Jihoon!” is all the warning he gets before Soonyoung barrels into his apartment, a whirlwind of energy and noise wherever he goes. Seungcheol yowls his disapproval from his hiding place but Soonyoung pays the noise (and the mysterious lump in the front of Jihoon’s hoodie) no mind. “It’s so good to see you! How are you! How is Seungcheol! Where is my tiny ball of sunshine!”

When Jihoon had first met Soonyoung (all of six years ago) he couldn’t help but notice how he always spoke in exclamation points. It was always “ _Jihoon!_ ” and “ _Let’s go for lunch!_ ” and “ _Did you hear about the new neighbour!_ ” Six years hasn’t changed that, and Jihoon both loves and hates him for it.

With the door safely latched behind him, he reaches into his pocket and takes Seungcheol out, placing him on the floor and watching him dash off to god knows where the moment his tiny paws hit the ground.

“Soonyoung,” he replies, and because he’s still a little bit upset that Soonyoung had so suddenly dropped a whole kitten into his lap (never mind that Seungcheol has done nothing but make his life better these past couple of days) he crosses his arms and levels him with the most unimpressed look he can muster. “Good to see you too, I’m doing okay, so is Cheol. He’s probably inhaling his breakfast, or off stalking in some dark corner of my apartment.”

Soonyoung looks delighted despite his stoic replies. “You call him Cheol? Oh gosh that’s the cutest!” he gushes, a smile stretching his lips and hands clasped together excitedly at Jihoon’s response.

Abruptly, Jihoon feels ridiculously endeared by the sight.

“You’re an idiot,” he tells him, but he knows he sounds far too fond, and when Soonyoung beams back at him he knows all is forgiven.

Soonyoung joins him in the kitchen, and they both watch the way Seungcheol lights up when he sees them and weaves between Jihoon’s legs eagerly.

“He refuses to eat by himself,” Jihoon explains, and Soonyoung smiles softly at the tiny ball of fur that is dwarfed by the huge food bowl.

“Finally someone’s keeping you in check,” Soonyoung jokes, grinning and stealing a slice of banana from Jihoon’s morning cereal bowl.

Jihoon rolls his eyes, but he knows he’s blushing hard at the statement. “Better him than you,” but from the way Soonyoung is smiling at him, it’s clear that Jihoon doesn’t mean that.

Soonyoung grabs an extra bowl from the cabinet and pours himself a helping of cereal as he starts rambling about his competition over the weekend. Seungcheol, once he’s done with his food, climbs onto the table and stares longingly at Jihoon’s bowl of breakfast.

It’s all terribly, terribly domestic. Soonyoung hand-feeds little bits of oats to the kitten as he keeps rambling about his competition, and Jihoon takes the empty bowls and cups and starts washing them (because knowing Soonyoung, he’d use up all of Jihoon’s clean cutlery before moaning dramatically about how there’s no clean dishes in his house).

Seungcheol _loves_ Soonyoung, because of course he does (who doesn’t?). Jihoon forgoes a day of work to hang around with Soonyoung and Seungcheol, seated in the living room and letting Seungcheol chase his little feather toy as a movie plays in the background. Soonyoung trails off occasionally, distracted by Seungcheol being absolutely adorable and glaring fiercely at the little feather that keeps fluttering just out of his reach.

There’s something then, something _there_ , that fills Jihoon’s stomach. Something warm, something comfortable, and then it quickly morphs into something familiar. Because one afternoon spent with Soonyoung and Seungcheol quickly becomes a daily thing, with Soonyoung stopping by at around lunchtime, spending an hour or two eating and playing with Seungcheol, before leaving for his afternoon dance classes. Jihoon knows that Soonyoung comes over for Seungcheol, but appreciates the company for lunch anyway.

He life starts becoming routine. He eats three meals a day, gets enough sleep each night, and finds himself more productive than ever. And as much as this is because of Soonyoung actually coming around every afternoon, a lot of it is also because of Seungcheol’s presence in his life. It’s almost like the kitten (growing steadily bigger each day) is aware of Jihoon’s incompetence in looking after himself and has decided that it’s up to him to take care of Jihoon.

As far as hyperactive kittens go, Seungcheol is pretty easy. He doesn’t chew up any of Jihoon’s things (although he does appear to eye Jihoon’s Gucci flip flops a little too intensely, so Jihoon very calmly puts it in a cupboard and locks it away), and is also litter trained. He quickly commandeers the pile of throw pillows in the corner of Jihoon’s studio when he gets too big to serve as a wrist support for Jihoon and refuses to leave, even when Jihoon tries to bribe him with food, and will happily curl up amongst the cushions and laze as Jihoon works on his music.

He also spends a whole hour each day stretched out in a warm spot near his window, basking lazily in the afternoon sun, eyes squinted close and a satisfied expression on his face. When Jihoon tried to pet him once Seungcheol had batted him away, so Jihoon leaves him alone for his afternoon laze, but keeps his studio door just ajar so that Seungcheol can join him in the studio once he’s done.

Two weeks with Seungcheol quickly becomes three weeks, which then becomes a month, and finally Mrs. Lee is back home from the hospital. Something heavy sits in Jihoon’s stomach when he learns of this, and even Soonyoung looks a little sorry to bring this news to him.

“She just moved back in,” and the way he says this is as though Jihoon is a particularly cranky toddler on the verge of a tantrum. “Maybe we can ask if she’ll let you keep him?”

Jihoon tries to tell himself that it’s better this way. He can’t care for another living creature, all the plants his mom has tried to hand off to him have ended up dead anyways, but it doesn’t help the sinking in his stomach when he scoops Seungcheol up in one arm, all his toys and food in a bag slung over his shoulder, and rings the bell to Mrs. Lee’s apartment.

“Cheollie!” she exclaims when she sees the kitten, who yowls his approval and nuzzles into her arms. Jihoon feels something lodged in his throat when he sees Seungcheol so happy and satisfied, so he hurriedly passes Mrs. Lee all the items and chokes out something about “ _Hope you’re feeling better_ ” and “ _Sorry I need to get back to work_ ” and “ _Oh he was no trouble at all_ ” before hightailing it back to his apartment.

He forgets to eat dinner that evening, and almost bursts into tears when he finds that Seungcheol’s favourite feather toy had been laying forgotten under the television console, and finally attempts to fall asleep at four in the morning on his studio couch because the bed just felt too big and too empty.

 _An absolute mess_ , Soonyoung would say, the same thing he’d said when Jihoon was in a rut and stuck with composing commercial jingles and other stupid projects that kept the money coming but brought him no satisfaction. Except back then he hadn’t known anything better.

Now, he’d had a taste of a better life and he doesn’t know how to go back to the way things were.

He falls asleep thinking about Seungcheol, and wakes up suffocated by fur.

“ _Meow_ ,” Seungcheol tells him, all indignant kitten anger, and nips Jihoon on the nose.

“Fucking christ,” Jihoon curses, although the nip hadn’t actually hurt, and he shoo-es Seungcheol off his face so he can figure out what the hell is going on. Soonyoung’s head appears through his doorway, eyes soft but smile bright, and reaches out to scratch Seungcheol behind the ears from where he’s balancing on the armrest. Seungcheol purrs happily, the traitor.

“Morning Jihoonie!” Jihoon glances at the clock and sees that it’s one in the afternoon, and scrubs the exhaustion and sleep deprivation from his eyes.

Then he does a double take and squints his eyes at Seungcheol.

“How’d you get in here?” and he knows he’s looks ridiculous, sleep mussed and talking to a cat, but Soonyoung swings his studio door wide open and throws him his towel and fresh clothes.

“Shower and lunch first!”

When he’s finally feeling more awake and alive, he comes out to the living room and finds cat toys scattered all over, and Seungcheol’s bowls and litter box back in place.

“Mrs. Lee said he wouldn’t stop crying for you yesterday,” Soonyoung tells him, as Seungcheol pads up to him and winds his way between Jihoon’s feet as he loves to do. “He sat at the door and cried and cried so she decided that it’s better for him to stay with you since he loves you so much.”

Jihoon feels something warm and affectionate flood his system when Seungcheol bounds onto his dining table and shamelessly bats at Jihoon’s fingers for pets, purring happily when Jihoon obliges. 

“She said she’s getting too old for kittens! Much too energetic for her,” and Jihoon is so _so_ happy with this turn of events that he only feels mild disgust at the way Soonyoung’s talking with his mouth full. “So he’s all yours! She might come to visit him sometimes though.”

When he turns to look at Soonyoung, aware that he’s grinning stupidly at the kitten batting a ray of light on the dining table, he catches something soft and fond in Soonyoung’s expression, before it shutters away to be replaced by something bright and blinding, but no less radiant.

“Thank you Soonyoung-ah,” he says sincerely. And what he means is _thank you for this_ , _thank you for Seungcheol,_ _thank you for believing in me even when I didn’t believe in myself_.

“What for? You should thank Mrs. Lee instead,” he laughs, but he brushes light fingers across Jihoon’s shoulders as he leaves, nuzzling the kitten affectionately on his way out.

When all that’s left in the apartment is Jihoon and Seungcheol, who’s crawled into his lap and is starting to drowse, Jihoon decides that he can spend one afternoon doing nothing, and curls up with his cat ( _his!_ ) on the couch.

**Author's Note:**

> Seungcheol is a [havana brown kitten](https://phz8.petinsurance.com/-/media/all-phz-images/2016-images-breeds-850/havana-brown850.jpg).
> 
> All mistakes are mine, kudos and comments are always loved!


End file.
